SECRET.
XV. Corps No. 608/13/70.
Dated 23-4-1918.
31D/211.A.Second Army
I forward the attached narrative of the action of the 4th Guards Brigade during the operations of the 11th to 14th April 1918, for the information of the Army Commander.
An account of the operations of the Corps as a whole is being prepared, but this record of the glorious stand against overwhelming odds made by the 4th Guards Brigade is of exceptional interest.
The history of the British Army can record nothing finer than the story of the action of the 4th Guards Brigade on the 12th and 13th April 1918.
The troops of the 29th and 31st Divisions by their stout defence covered the detrainment of the First Australian Division and saved Hazebrouck.
(Signed) Beauvoir de Lisle,
Lieut.-General Commanding XV. Corps.XV. Corps.
23-4-18.Copy to 31st Division.
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Forwarded for your information.
(Signed) W. H. Annesley, Lieut.-Colonel,
24-4-18. A.A. and Q.M.G., 31st Division.
General Sir H. S. Horne, commanding the First Army, telegraphed as follows to the Commander of the Fifteenth Corps:
I wish to express my appreciation of the great bravery and endurance with which all ranks have fought and held out (during the last five days) against overwhelming numbers.
It has been necessary to call for great exertions and more must still be asked for, but I am quite confident that at this critical period, when the existence of the British Army is at stake, all ranks of the First Army will do their best.
(Signed) H. S. Horne, General,
Commanding First Army.
Sir Douglas Haig in his Despatch of October 21 describes the fighting as follows:
Next day (April 12) the enemy followed up his attacks with great vigour, and the troops of the Twenty-ninth and Thirty-first Divisions, now greatly reduced in strength by the severe fighting already experienced, and strung out over a front of nearly 10,000 yards east of the Forêt de Nieppe, were once more tried to the utmost. Behind them the First Australian Division, under the command of Major-General Sir H. B. Walker, K.C.B., D.S.O., was in process of detraining, and the troops were told that the line was to be held at all costs until the detrainment could be completed.
During the morning, which was very foggy, several determined attacks, in which a German armoured car came into action against the 4th Guards Brigade on the southern portion of our line, were repulsed with great loss to the enemy. After the failure of these assaults, he brought up field-guns to point-blank range, and in the northern sector, with their aid, gained Vieux Berquin. Everywhere except at Vieux Berquin the enemy's advance was held up all day by desperate fighting, in which our advanced posts displayed the greatest gallantry, maintaining their ground when entirely surrounded, men standing back to back in the trenches and shooting to front and rear.
Emery Walker. ph. sc.
Brigadier-General C. R. Champion de Crespigny D.S.O.
In the afternoon the enemy made a further determined effort, and by sheer weight of numbers forced his way through the gaps in our depleted line, the surviving garrisons of our posts fighting where they stood to the last with bullet and bayonet. The heroic resistance of these troops, however, had given the leading Brigade of the First Australian Division time to reach and organise their appointed line east of the Forêt de Nieppe. These now took up the fight, and the way to Hazebrouck was definitely closed.
The performance of all the troops engaged in this most gallant stand, and especially that of the 4th Guards Brigade, on whose front of some 4000 yards the heaviest attacks fell, is worthy of the highest praise. No more brilliant exploit has taken place since the opening of the enemy's offensive, though gallant actions have been without number.
The action of these troops, and indeed of all the Divisions engaged in the fighting in the Lys Valley, is the more noteworthy because, as already pointed out, practically the whole of them had been brought straight out of the Somme battlefield, where they had suffered severely and had been subjected to a great strain. All these Divisions, without adequate rest and filled with young reinforcements, which they had had no time to assimilate, were again hurriedly thrown into the fight, and in spite of the great disadvantages under which they laboured, succeeded in holding up the advance of greatly superior forces of fresh troops. Such an accomplishment reflects the greatest credit on the youth of Great Britain, as well as upon those responsible for the training of young soldiers sent out from home at this time.
Lieutenant C. Kerr of the 8th Battalion Australian Infantry afterwards reported that, when the Australian Division was establishing a line of defence for the troops in front to fall back upon, isolated parties from the front arrived. Sergeant E. Shaw of the 4th Battalion on reaching that line, collected all the men he could, and inquired where he should take up a position; but Lieutenant Kerr, who knew what hard fighting the Battalion had been through, offered to send these men back to his Battalion Headquarters. Sergeant Shaw, however, asked permission to stay in the line with his men until he received instructions to join his battalion. A position behind the hedge near Seclin Farm was allotted to these men, and there they stayed until the 15th, when they received orders to join their battalion.
Lieutenant Kerr added in his report:
The men of my company and battalion are full of admiration for the manner in which the Guards fought. We watched the fighting in the village and farms whilst consolidating new line. The moral effect on our troops of the stubborn resistance offered by these troops in denying ground to the enemy, the orderly withdrawal to our line, and the refusal of this sergeant to leave the line when offered the choice of comfortable quarters, was excellent.